Tuesday, February 9, 2016

Woman arrested for embezzlement from Riverside Elementary School daycare

A 28-year-old Longs woman has been arrested and charged with embezzling money from the Riverside Elementary School's daycare.

Mandy Bellamy, of Longs, has been charged with embezzlement of public funds, value $5,000 or more, according to detention center records.

Police were called by the principal and bookkeeper who said that they were told by the child care director that Bellamy had been acting strangely the past few weeks and showed an "overwhelming interest in receiving the money from parents and would always want to drop the 'money bag' at the end of the work day," said a police report.

On one occasion the bookkeeper found the money bag $170 dollars short and a record of that specific payment was missing from the money bag, according to the report.

Surveillance footage was reviewed and Bellamy was seen walking down the hall with the bag, but then sitting down on a chair and unzipping the bag, according to the report.

She is then seen, according to the police report, pulling out several payments, setting one aside and returning the others to the bag.

After seeing this tape, other instances were discovered where Bellamy carried the money bag to be delivered and some recorded payments never made their way to the bookkeeper, according to the report.